I had finished I, Lucifer by this author prior to reading this novel, and I was facinated by his take on heaven, hell, the devil, and god. Here, also, is an interesting take on what happens to a person after they die. The main character awoke to whiteness, nothingness, then suddenly found himself at his funeral, with no recollection of how or why he got there. He spends the day around his family, being drawn into them like a moth to a light. He can see and hear thier thoughts, he is also drawn i...

Glen Duncan is the master of writing the nitty gritty of those thoughts which most of us are embarrassed to think, or even verbalise. This book puts us directly into the heads of every one of its characters (bar one, whom we never actually meet, but who casts a shadow into the story). It tells the story of Nathan, who is a ghost at his own funeral, dipping into and out of the minds of the attendees, his family, and into and out of their memories. There is a door with a scary attraction, and two

The story follows a dead man as he hovers over his family & closest friend the day of his funeral & wake. The plot, such as it is, follows him as he tries to discover why he died. But it also follows him through time as this thoroughly devoted family man who dearly loves his wife & 3 kids reexperiences key moments in his life. The book has passages of amazing insight about family relationships. There's a brilliant chapter on his daughter's first sexual experience (it's not particularly graphic e...

Quite brilliant. Before Death of an Ordinary Man I’d read only one other book by Duncan, I, Lucifer, which I suppose was similar in its style and themes and so on. He has this amazing talent for describing an existence outside of the human experience. His imagery transcends the senses, and is something I think everyone needs to experience at least once.But I think what struck me the most in this story was the characters and the depth to which we got to know them. The omniscient perspective of re...

Honestly, I thought this book sucked. 50 pages into it, I wasn't sure whether or not I'd bother finishing it. For some reason I kept reading, figuring it would get better. By a certain point, I still didn't care much for the story and disliked most all of the characters, yet I was far enough along in the book I thought "I might as well finish it now." I really didn't identify with any of the characters. I thought the whole stream-of-consciousness writing style very annoying -- especially conside...

The supernatural parts aren't really supernatural enough, and the family drama parts are too overwrought. It bothers me when you can't tell whether the author or the narrator has a warped view of the world; it's like seeing "Inglorious Basterds" without knowing how WWII actually ended. The women in this novel are presented as mystic goddesses, all vastly superior to men but without man's humanity. It's a common problem with male authors, and it bothers me. The criminal center of the novel is a h...

After reading this book I still don't know if I completely liked it. At times Duncan's writing really moved me, he is articulate, accurate and describes human interaction in a wonderful way. However at the same time, I had trouble connecting some of the characters which made it difficult to read at times.As mentioned by some of the other reviewers, this book isn't for everyone and it does take some time to get used to Duncan's writing style. Overall though, the good bits, outweighed the bad, and...

The best book I've read since college. The story is heartbreaking, but I couldn't tear myself away. It took a little while to really get into the author's voice, as the main character is just as clueless as the reader as to what's going on in the beginning. It's worth sticking it out and getting into.

Don't get me wrong, I adore Glen Duncan and have read his entire body of work, but this novel simply did not 'do it' for me. It of course is formulated in beautiful prose, and has some incredible passages and quotes, but overall it failed to draw me in like every other book of Duncan's I have read.

I read this book because I was contemplating a dead narrator in my new novel. I've changed my mind, but I'm glad I had a chance to read this.

The story is about a man, Nathan, who finds he has died and doesn't remember how it happened. There is little plot of any kind. We follow Nathan around as he attempts to understand how his life came to be what it was. He does this by following signals which can arise from people or objects and which, when he goes near them, propel him into a vivid replay of a particular event in his past, or in the past of someone else. Instead of plot, the author seems to be interested in the relationships betw...

Now for a libra beginning of rating this book: I’m sure this book is great for someone. I don’t think I ever gave a book a one star, but this was hard to get through. It is very well written and the language is at times stunning, but the lack of concrete plot was impossible. I’m someone who loves to follow a story, especially when I’m on a train attempting to escape my commute and not reading Gertrude Stein. The book is literally about a ghost that floats through his after life (or in between wo...

Nathan awakens to find himself dead and viewing his own funeral. Although he knows for certain he is dead, he cannot remember how it happened. With the ability to read thoughts and experience the memories of others, he spends the day of his wake trying to come to terms with what lead him to this point and to answer some questions, namely: How did he die? How did his daughter die? How will the rest of his family go on aft another tragedy? The beginning of the book is very choppy as Nathan comes b...

This book was extremely hard to get into . I’d read several reviews about how good it was so decided to keep going . It took me about three times to reread just the first three chapters to try to grasp things . The idea of the story line was very intriguing, and it was interesting to see things from the characters perspective after death and the authors unique spin on it . This book does make you stop and think about how something awful can destroy so many people and how we try so hard to appeas...

As ever, Glen Duncan can do no wrong in my eyes, but I suspect if this had been the first of his I'd picked up I might not have got past the first few pages, the initial premise being something of a turn-off for me. However, persist I did (after all he got me reading werewolves!) and I ended with the feeling that I've lived half blind to all that was going on around me, so unaware and incapable of observation. And of living at this level anyway. I'd like to go back and do it all again, properly....

While the concept of this book was interesting, in practice it just never really got anywhere. A man comes back from his death as an invisible consciousness, looking and hearing his families hidden inner lives. The subplot being the terrible thing that happened to his youngest daughter, and how that impacted his family. Unfortunately, by the time I got the details of that (which is the only slightly interesting part of the story), I did not care about any of the characters in the slightest, so i...

Man hangs about the house, looking at his family and - now that he is dead - finally understands them. Seriously, it's long, slow, some passages are filler (and the weightlessness reminded me of the vomit comet and was totally unnecessary) but others are lovely in places, the effect of the loss of a child is beautifully written, and the suspenseful element melts away....leaving a lingering sense of loss and new beginnings.

I don't know why I couldn't get into this. Maybe I wasn't in the right headspace. I liked the concept of telling the story from the point of view of a dead man. But I thought it needed something more. Duncan seems to have relied on the shock factor to tell his story. The ending was boring! Maybe someone else will like it better.

Bailed on this I'm afraid. I gave it a good try (about 70 pages in) but it just felt like nonsense to me. It's a shame, there were some really beautiful passages (followed by three pages of nonsense). Perhaps it's too high brow for me and the fault is mine not the authors, who knows. All I know is that i am not the intended audience for this book.

I loved the idea of a man who'd died figuring out what happened to him but what happened was really unexpected to me as I thought it was going to be a murder especially as there are two seemingly suspicious individuals who were the last to see him.A bit underwhelming and the way he was sucked into people's memory got boring. Had to force myself to read it for long periods of time.

I wish I could give this book a higher rating. It was beautiful, eloquent, gut wrenching, thought provoking. Quickly became one of my favorite novels of all time. Duncan is yet again a genius and master of his craft.

Well-written, often stream-of-consciousness style which is how you might imagine thoughts after death. Sometimes brutal, often beautiful memories and descriptions. The objective correlative (daughter) throughout is very painful. Ending is satisfying. Highly recommend

If you are feeling sad or depressed don’t read this book. Well written but the characters don’t elicit any positive feelings and the story is sad but without being tragic. Ugly people, ugly story with ugly themes. Do yourself a favour and read something else, you’ll feel better.

Excellent story all the way around, and very well written.

Very enthralling book - I like the sometimes stream of consciousness writing. The story is heartbreaking but you can't turn away. I've not read any other of Glen Duncan's work but will.

Duncan has a unique ability to find the words to describe the things we think but can’t possibly acknowledge we think.

I love the way Duncan writes. He's capable of turning out sophisticated insights with a droll wit or cutting poignancy. In the end though, this story was just too sad for me to enjoy. Maybe I'm a little soft but I need more humor and hope than this. It was a bit disappointing because Duncan goes in for this kind of dark rumination in several of his novels, and then his werewolf series actually feels too light, like he dumbed the writing down to focus on the action. I, Lucifer is a favorite novel...

Comparisons with Alice Sebold's better-known play on the same theme are unavoidable (so I won't avoid them), but Duncan's Death of an Ordinary Man is not afraid to go to places, dark places, that The Lovely Bones tends to (delicately, beautifully) swerve around. For that alone I prefer Duncan's effort.Death of an Ordinary Man takes some getting used to (especially if you jump into it after having just read a James Frey novel); Duncan's style in this novel is ethereal, wispy, intangible and scatt...

This is one of those books that clearly doesn't play by the "rules" promoted by most writing self-help books - which may explain why I enjoyed it so much. The story unfolds very slowly. It's a bit like the movie Pulp Fiction in that it's not put together in the traditional beginning-middle-end structure that we all know so well. Even the prose, which reflects the garbled minds/emotions of the characters, follows the pattern set forth by the story structure. The entire book is designed to do one

A perplexing take on the experience of a soul coming to peace with their own death . . . and sharing, with the reader, a profound naivete about "what happens when we die" along with a puzzling naivete about the circumstances of their own death. The reader follows the narrator on a metaphysical tour of their funeral, complete with forays into the thoughts and emotions of their family and friends. You learn about the narrator's life through his family's thought and memories and his own interpretat...